|Startsida | Sångare | Andra artister och kreatörer | Libretton | Operahus | Jag och min operavärld | Sökord |
|Startsida | Sångare | Andra artister och kreatörer | Libretton | Operahus | Jag och min operavärld | Sökord |
Music:Charles Gounod. Lyrics: Jules Barbier and Michel Carré after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe´s play with the same name.
Libretto in the French language
First performance at Theatre-Lyrique in Paris on the nineteenth of March 1859.
| Role | Voicetype |
|---|---|
| Faust | tenor |
| Young Faust | silent role |
| Mèphistophélès | bassbaritone |
| Marguerite | soprano |
| Valentin | baritone |
| Marthe | mezzosoprano |
| Siébel | mezzosoprano |
| Wagner | baritone |
Aging Doctor Faust sits brooding about his life, feeling it was worthless. Preparing to take poison, he calls on Satan. Mèphistophélès obligingly appears and offers Faust whatever he wants in exchange for his soul. Faust wants youth and its joys. Mèphistophélès shows him a vision of a beautiful young woman named Marguerite. Faust seals the bargain with Satan. He is transformed into a handsome young man.
Mèphistophélès and Faust travel to Marguerite´s home.Marguerite´s brother is leaving for war and is worried about leaving his sister alone.Once he leaves.Mèphistophélès produces a chest full of jewels to help Faust entice Marguerite.She finds the jewels and is dazzled and excited. Faust and Marguerite walk in the garden and Mèphistophélès calls on powers of nature to cast spell over them. Marguerite eventually succumbs to Faust´s advances.
Marguerite, alone and pregnant, has been abandoned by Faust. She is mocked by the townspeople and fearful of her future.Her brother Valentin returns from war and is full of anger over Marguerites condition. Faust appears with Mèphistophélès and Valentin is goaded into a duel. Faust mortally wounds Valentin, who denounces and curses his sister as he dies.
Marguerite loses her senses. In her madness she kills her newborn child and is in prison, awaiting execution.Faust and Mèphistophélès appear in her cell. She recognizes Faust and is overjoyed,but when she sees Mèphistophélèsshe recoils, instinctively sensing his evil. She asks for salvation and falls dead.
